Less than 24 hours after he delivered the State of the Union address to the nation, President Barack Obama delivered a 20-minute speech to about 200-300 people at Linamar Corp., where he emphasized the importance of manufacturing jobs in relation to building a stronger middle-class. (Photo by Max Cooper)

Asheville’s most famous writing student, actor James Franco, was commissioned by Yahoo! News to write a poem about the inauguration of President Barack Obama, taking place today, Jan. 21, in Washington D.C. It focuses on the history of Asheville and its most well known visitors, including Obama.

On Tuesday, Oct. 2, Vice President Joe Biden spoke to a crowd of almost 2,000 in UNCA’s Justice Center as part of a grassroots event. His speech focused on differences between President Obama and Mitt Romney, education, the middle class, taxes, the economy and more. This is his sixth trip to the Tarheel state this year. These are the photos from the Oct. 2 event. (All photos by Xpress reporter Caitlin Byrd)

Following news earlier today that the Democratic National Convention Committee was moving President Barack Obama’s Thursday, Sept. 6, speech indoors due to weather concerns, the Buncombe County Democratic Party cancelled its plans to bus roughly 100 local supporters to Charlotte to attend it.

Local activists reacted with guarded relief as the Obama administration this afternoon announced that it is requesting a 12- to 18-month review and delay on a decision regarding the Keystone XL pipeline. (photo by Bill Rhodes)

President Barack Obama swooped in to the Asheville Regional Airport Oct. 17, praising the town and delivering a combative speech to hundreds of supporters gathered on the tarmac to greet him as he kicked off a bus tour of North Carolina and Virginia. This post includes an audio recording of the speech and the latest edition of the Mountain Xpress’ local-news podcast, in which reporter Jake Frankel shares observations from the event.
Photo by Jonathan Welch

We reported on Oct. 9 that Pres. Obama might stop in Asheville during a jobs bus tour; the Washington Post had noted on Oct. 5 that the tour was coming to North Carolina, then later noted Asheville was on the stop list; the Asheville Citizen-Times leads with the news online this morning, Oct. 12.